Do you need better salespeople, or a better system?Morné Smit is the founder and CEO of Emerse Sales. Before that, he took a commercial construction company from $18 million to $180 million in five years, without outside funding or a single acquisition. He now helps businesses build the same kind of predictable, repeatable revenue engine.In this episode, Morné walks John St. Pierre and Rich Hoffmann through the McDonald's Principle: build extraordinary systems so that even ordinary people can win, then go hire the best talent you can afford. He breaks a sales organization into six parts, explains why C players are the most dangerous hires in any business, and shares the exact weekly formula his clients use to build real sales mastery.What you'll walk away with: the McDonald's Principle and how it took one company from $18 million to $180 million in five years, the six part sales ecosystem of leadership, management, talent, enablement, integration, and culture, why C players quietly block scalability, the 45 minute weekly formula behind what Morné calls role practice, not role play, and why the customer experience is your marketing.Explore Morné's masterclasses at mornesmit.comConnect with Morné Smit on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/morné-smit-sales-guru/ or by email at [email protected] by John St. Pierre and Rich Hoffmann, Entrepreneurs United is built for founders and leaders who want straight talk on building businesses that actually work. New episodes every week.https://entrepreneursunited.us/links/

Is your bank quietly saying no to the growth capital your business needs?Trevor Barran has started over a dozen companies, worked in venture capital and investment banking, and began his career in small business lending. Today he's the CEO of FNCR, a platform that connects growing businesses to financing that's increasingly hard to find, especially in the $1 million to $30 million range.In this episode, Trevor and host John St. Pierre break down how to protect your equity, why banks have been quietly pulling back from small business lending since the financial crisis, and the financing no man's land that hits right after your business starts winning.What you'll walk away with:Why the equity trade should be evaluated as whose time you're buying and not just dollars raised. The real cost of capital across bank debt, private credit, and merchant cash advance. Why go to the bank is decreasingly a real option, and why it's not personal when they say no. How FNCR matches businesses to the right lender across seven dimensions and a network of about 2,000 lenders. How to think about leverage as a competitive edge instead of a risk to avoid.Start Trevor's free 10-minute funding application (no fees, no commitment, no credit impact) at my.fncr.comConnect with Trevor Barran on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/trevorbarran or email [email protected] by John St. Pierre and Rich Hoffmann, Entrepreneurs United is built for founders and leaders who want straight talk on building businesses that actually work. New episodes every week.https://entrepreneursunited.us/links/

Would you let your kid fail on purpose?John St. Pierre and Rich Hoffmann dig into a book called Raising an Entrepreneur and its 10 rules for parenting future founders, then talk through which ones actually hold up in real life.From a hockey injury that taught a bigger lesson than the scoreboard to an 11 year old selling car washes and protein balls door to door, they get into why letting kids lose, embracing adversity, and supporting even the smallest passion matters more than protecting them from failure. They also question whether straight A's help at all, why a non-parent mentor might matter more than either of them expected, and flip the whole conversation around to ask what these same rules mean for raising intrapreneurs inside a business.What you'll walk away with: why letting your kids lose is one of the most important things you can do for them, why supporting a passion matters more than whether it becomes a real business, why straight A's and traditional schooling might not nurture entrepreneurial thinking, why kids respond better to a mentor who isn't their parent, and how these same parenting principles apply to leading intrapreneurs at work.Hosted by John St. Pierre and Rich Hoffmann, Entrepreneurs United is built for founders and leaders who want straight talk on building businesses that actually work. New episodes every week.https://entrepreneursunited.us/linksAbout Entrepreneurs UnitedHosted by John St. Pierre and Rich Hoffmann, Entrepreneurs United is built for founders and leaders who want straight talk on building businesses that actually work. New episodes every week.

What if 98% of people are just winging life, and don't even know it?We don't do book episodes often on Entrepreneurs United, but Stephen Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People earned one. We brought back returning guest John Mitchell, founder of the Center for Advanced Leadership of Self at the University of Texas at Austin, to go through the book habit by habit with hosts John St. Pierre and Rich Hoffmann.In this episode, the three of them talk about which habits actually shaped how they lead, why most people are proactive in theory but not in practice, and propose the eighth habit they think Covey left out of the original book.What you'll walk away with: why John Mitchell says 98% of people are winging life instead of living it on purpose, Rich Hoffmann's data backed case for why listening beats talking when it comes to real influence, John St. Pierre's take on Covey's big rocks story and why it still beats every modern productivity hack, the space between stimulus and response and why that pause is the real secret to self-control, and the eighth habit John Mitchell thinks Covey left out: learning to control your subconscious autopilot.If it's been a while since you've read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, this episode is your reminder to pick it back up.Connect with John MitchellHosted by John St. Pierre and Rich Hoffmann, Entrepreneurs United is built for founders and leaders who want straight talk on building businesses that actually work. New episodes every week.https://entrepreneursunited.us/links/

Most founders think they have a lead generation problem. What if the real problem starts after the sale closes?Bradley Rausch is a client experience architect, strategic advisor, and founder of Level Up Influence, the go-to backend profit partner for founder-led coaching and group programs. Over six years, he has helped dozens of founders turn chaotic growth into durable, higher-margin revenue without sacrificing their values.In this episode, Bradley walks John & Rich through his four-sale framework: enrollment, onboarding, advocacy, and ascension. He breaks down the four emotional states every client needs to feel in their first 72 hours, the exact math and timing behind referrals and testimonials, how to price and pitch an ascension offer, and how a custom GPT can deliver a client's first win before the onboarding call even happens.What you'll walk away with: The four-sale framework and why most businesses only optimize the first saleThe four emotional states - Momentum, Clarity, Safety & Identity, to build in a client's first 72 hoursConnect with Bradley Rausch Hosted by John St. Pierre and Rich Hoffmann, Entrepreneurs United is built for founders and leaders who want straight talk on building businesses that actually work. New episodes every week.https://entrepreneursunited.us/links

Are you managing AI adoption on your team, or is it managing you?In this episode, hosts John St. Pierre and Rich Hoffmann tackle one of the biggest leadership challenges right now: helping employees embrace AI instead of fearing it. They dig into why change resistance almost always comes down to a perceived loss of privacy, trust, individuality, or job security, and why leaders need to name that directly instead of dancing around it.Rich shares eight AI use guidelines he built with a coaching client, covering everything from opt in consent for recordings to being transparent about AI shaped outputs to rewriting things in your own voice. John and Rich also get into piloting small AI use cases for quick wins, capturing institutional knowledge into SOPs and competency models, hiring for AI embracing talent, and mentoring employees into higher level work.What you'll walk away with: a clear framework for setting AI ground rules on your team, practical ways to pilot AI without overwhelming your people, how to turn tribal knowledge into documented systems before it walks out the door, what to look for when hiring for an AI forward culture, and why focus groups and open communication matter more than a top down mandate.Hosted by John St. Pierre and Rich Hoffmann, Entrepreneurs United is built for founders and leaders who want straight talk on building businesses that actually work. New episodes every week.https://entrepreneursunited.us/links

What if your best salesperson never took a day off?On the Entrepreneurs United Podcast, hosts John St. Pierre and Rich Hoffmann talk with book strategist Jill Clair, co-founder of Erin Marie Books, about why a book is a 24/7 credibility asset and one of the most powerful sales tools an entrepreneur, expert, or business owner will ever create.Jill explains how to rise above the crowded everyone has a book market by publishing professionally, aiming for bestseller status with a real launch strategy, and building in a dedicated URL and free bonus that turns readers into leads. She breaks down a 3 to 4 month process that uses AI for structure and content gathering while keeping the author's own voice through writing, interviews, and transcripts, often in a focused 120 page format. John and Rich then unpack the vulnerability of authorship, the relationship building power of storytelling, and the four reasons to write a book.What you'll walk away with: why a book works as a credibility asset before you ever get on a call, walk on a stage, or get Googled, why AI-written books lose readers' trust fast and how to use AI the right way instead, why a dedicated URL or lead magnet inside your book is what actually turns readers into leads, what writing a book forces you to confront about your own vulnerability, and the four real reasons to write a book: purpose, value, legacy, and business card.Connect with Jill Clair on LinkedInHosted by John St. Pierre and Rich Hoffmann, Entrepreneurs United is built for founders and leaders who want straight talk on building businesses that actually work. New episodes every week.https://entrepreneursunited.us/links/

What if your money problems were never about money?Doug Lynam has had three careers: Marine, Benedictine monk, and financial advisor. That path led him to one insight most financial professionals never arrive at. Your Enneagram personality type has been driving your financial decisions since childhood. He calls these patterns Money Monsters, and every one of us has them.In this episode, Doug walks John St. Pierre and Rich Hoffmann through the nine Enneagram types and their relationship to money, explains the four pillars of finance and where each type struggles most, and makes the case that building real financial strength is not selfish. When you align your money with your values, you stop surviving and start serving.What you'll walk away with: an understanding of how your ego defense structures shape how you earn, save, invest, and give; the two Money Monsters for Type 2 helpers and Type 3 achievers; why paying yourself first is the antidote for the over-giving type; and what it means to use your wealth as a tool for love and service to the world.Download Doug's free Enneagram personality test at douglynam.comConnect with Doug Lynam on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/doug-lynam/Hosted by John St. Pierre and Rich Hoffmann, Entrepreneurs United is built for founders and leaders who want straight talk on building businesses that actually work. New episodes every week.https://entrepreneursunited.us/links

What would it look like if every leader in your business actually had clarity?In this episode, John St. Pierre and Rich Hoffmann do something different: they build a clarity checklist live on air, with no script and no prep. What comes out of it is a set of principles any entrepreneur or leadership team can use immediately to pressure-test where clarity actually exists in their business and where it doesn't.They cover the six principles of clarity: concise communication using a minimum number of words, consideration of both facts and feelings, written clarity that's accessible to everyone who needs it, a one-page or less standard, the right people in the room when clarity is being defined, and confirmation that everyone understands. They also get into why most quarterly goals fail before the quarter ends, why personal clarity through a 30-year life plan has to come before business clarity, and how AI can function as a real-time clarity coach.You'll walk away knowing the difference between thinking you have clarity and actually having it, and with a framework to start testing that in your business today.Listen here: https://entrepreneursunited.us/links/Hosted by John St. Pierre and Rich Hoffmann, Entrepreneurs United is built for founders and leaders who want straight talk on building businesses that actually work. New episodes every week.

What if your AI could function like a team of specialists who already know everything about your business?Jason Van Orden has spent two decades helping coaches and consultants turn their expertise into scalable businesses. In this episode, he joins John St. Pierre and Rich Hoffmann to break down how he builds custom AI systems using Claude that function like a real team. A system that knows your SOPs, your brand voice, your clients, and your intellectual property, and turns all of it into compounding leverage.This isn't about using AI to write posts faster. It's about building a second brain that eliminates cognitive drag, runs scheduled tasks in the background, and multiplies everything you've worked hard to learn and build.What you'll walk away with: How to set up scheduled tasks that eliminate repetitive work. The three barriers keeping most entrepreneurs from real AI leverage. The trust, mindset, and logistics framework for handling AI security anxiety. Why reducing cognitive load is the goal and why eliminating it is the trap. Real client wins including a nurture sequence built in an afternoon and a seven-year stalled book that landed a publisher deal in four months.Take Jason's free Growth Diagnostic at http://www.jasonvanorden.com/growthConnect with Jason Van Orden on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonvanorden/Hosted by John St. Pierre and Rich Hoffmann, Entrepreneurs United is built for founders and leaders who want straight talk on building businesses that actually work. New episodes every week. https://entrepreneursunited.us/links/